


Dark Canada

by dsa_archivist



Category: The X-Files, due South
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1999-06-05
Updated: 1999-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-10 06:31:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11121780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dsa_archivist/pseuds/dsa_archivist
Summary: Note from Speranza, the archivist: this story was once archived atDue South Archive. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in June 2017. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address onDue South Archive collection profile.





	Dark Canada

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Speranza, the archivist: this story was once archived at [Due South Archive](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Due_South_Archive). To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in June 2017. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Due South Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/duesoutharchive).

Dark Canada

 

-Disclaimer: X-Files characters belong to FOX and 1013. due South  
characters belong to Alliance Communications.  
-Spoilers: X-Files: "Unrequieted", "Lazarus", "Ascension",  
"Paper Clip",  
and "The Field Where I Died". due  
South: "Victoria's Secret" (both parts),  
and "Letting  
Go".  
-Timeline notice: I think I kind of had to mess with the timeline a bit  
in  
order to get the "Unrequieted" references in but keep  
the real Ray Vecchio  
and not use Kowalski. At least, if "Unrequieted"  
was set in 1997 like I  
think it was. dS watchers know what I mean  
with the Kowalski/Vecchio stuff.  
So this is set after XF's "Unrequieted"  
but before dS's "Burning Down the  
House".  
-Summary: Scully and Fraser are kidnapped for a couple hours. A disjointed  
conversation and lots of Fraser-angst ensue.  
-Author's note: Uhm, if this story feels kind of non-climactic, I won't  
argue. It's really more a setup piece to what's coming in the epilogue  
story.  
  
And no, it's not really set in Canada.  
  
***  
  


## Dark Canada

  
by Amatia  
  
"I would be the one, to hold you down..."  
\- Sarah MacLachlan, "Possession"  
  
It was like any other joint stakeout, except that for once they'd  
switched partners. Mulder had gone with Vecchio in the Riv, presumably  
to  
get some fashion tips, and Fraser had gone with Scully in her  
and Mulder's  
car, having some hundred questions to ask her about  
various medical things.  
  
A thermos of coffee sat between them, and they each held a  
styrofoam cup between their hands. "God, it's cold," Scully  
said.  
  
"I agree," Fraser said, adjusting his plaid flannel  
scarf. "Thank  
you for bringing the coffee. You knew how I like  
it."  
  
"I asked your partner," Scully said. "Cream, no  
sugar."  
  
"He's not technically my partner. But we work together often,"  
Fraser replied, sipping his coffee. His eyes scanned the landscape.  
  
The radio crackled. Mulder's voice came through. "Anything  
by you?  
Over."  
  
Fraser depressed the button. "Nothing here, Agent Mulder.  
You? Over."  
  
"Nothing. It's as still as a ghost town on our side, over."  
  
"Very funny, Mulder," Scully said. "I'm sure Detective  
Vecchio  
appreciates your paranormal sense of humor. Over."  
  
"Especially in Chicago in February," Vecchio replied  
wryly. "Next  
check-in, twenty minutes. Over."  
  
"Talk to you then, Ray. Team two out." Fraser said.  
The radio fell  
silent. "Agent Scully..."  
  
"Yes, Constable?" Scully sipped her coffee.  
  
"I get the impression that Agent Mulder isn't on this case  
for  
because he wants Tank to get some ordinary federal charge."  
  
Scully sighed. "I figured you'd ask sooner or later."  
  
"Then I'm correct?"  
  
"In a way. We do want to catch Tank, he's wanted on suspicion  
of  
six dual kidnappings in the D.C. area, six in the Indianapolis  
area, and  
four in greater Chicago so far. Kidnaps them, holds them  
hostage for a  
week, then releases them. Mulder has this crazy theory  
that Tank is going  
for 6-6-6. And then he'll stop, and kill the last  
pair of victims in some  
satanic ritual. Mulder thinks witchcraft,  
something like that. I just think  
he's psycho. But we want to catch  
him before he gets the fifth pair of  
victims."  
  
"That's not a crazy theory, per se."  
  
"Oh, it's not all of it. You see, Mulder thinks that Tank  
hasn't  
been caught yet because he has the ability to disappear. Like  
a case I saw  
a few years back. Former soldier could literally disappear.  
He'd learned it  
in Vietnam."  
  
"Does Mulder know Tank is a Vietnam vet?" Fraser asked.  
  
Scully nodded, then took a drink of her coffee. She swallowed,  
then  
said, "Mulder wrote the profile on Tank. Part of it was  
based on a previous  
profile he wrote on Nathaniel Teager, the invisible  
soldier. Tank and  
Teager were in the same battalion in Vietnam. But  
Teager had been MIA since  
the war had ended. Tank was MIA for three  
months after the war came to an  
end. Teager wanted to kill top military  
brass in revenge for all the MIAs  
and POWs, but Tank's ulterior motive  
is something much more sinister,  
according to Mulder."  
  
"You think he's going to show up?" Fraser gestured  
toward the dark  
house in front of them.  
  
"No," Scully replied, "I don't. But it was a lead  
we had to follow,  
at least for the reports."  
  
Fraser was watching something in the distance. "There's  
something  
out there."  
  
Scully picked up her binocs. "I don't see it, Constable."  
  
"No, there's something out there. I'm going to go see,"  
he said,  
opening the car door.  
  
"I'm coming with you," Scully said, and exited the  
car. "Wait,  
Fraser, we need to radio Mulder and...Fraser?"  
  
He was already jogging away. Scully noted his direction, then  
picked up the radio. "Mulder, you there?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Constable Fraser spotted something in the weeds. I didn't  
see it,  
but I'm going with him. Over."  
  
"I read you. You want us to back you up? Over."  
  
"No, it's probably just a cat. Scully out." She put  
the radio back  
in the car, and moved quickly in the direction Fraser  
had gone.  
  
He was laying in the weeds, not moving. Scully dropped to her  
knees  
beside him, and felt for a pulse. It was slow, but he was definately  
alive.  
She made a visual examination. There were no wounds. "Constable?"  
  
Fraser didn't stir. "Fraser?" she said, lightly slapping  
his cheek.  
Something pricked her neck. "Ouch!"  
  
She looked behind her, but there was nothing there. The weeds  
kept  
swaying...she blinked, trying to clear her vision, but it didn't  
help.  
"What the..." her voice trailed off as she slumped  
over Fraser's body,  
unconscious.  
  
***  
  
Fraser awoke with a start. It was dark where he was. There was  
someone beside him. He traced their features with his hand. It was Scully,  
and she was unconsious, but alive. He dropped his hand to the floor,  
rubbing the particles he found between his fingertips. Dirt mixed with  
sand. They were presumably in a cellar. One with no heat. He reached  
over,  
and gently pulled Scully into the circle of his arms. Her coat  
was thinner  
than his, and her body weight was less.  
  
Gradually, she awoke. Her body twisted in his arms. "Wha..."  
  
"Sssh. It's okay."  
  
"Fraser?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Where are we?"  
  
"In a cellar."  
  
"Why are you holding me?"  
  
"Because it's cold, and your coat is not very warm,"  
he replied.  
  
She was quiet for a moment. "Thank you."  
  
"There is no need for thanks. I didn't want to have you  
freeze on  
the ground."  
  
"It's...what, below zero in here?"  
  
"It's six degrees in here. Well below freezing. Do you have  
gloves?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah." Scully raised her hands. "It's pitch black  
in here. I can't  
see four inches in front of my face."  
  
"It's just a huge hole in the ground. I'm assuming that  
we are the  
fifth pair of victims," Fraser said.  
  
He felt her nod. "According to the profile, we'll be released  
in a  
week, if we're not found first. Every cop and Fed in the city  
is probably  
looking for us already."  
  
"We were unconscious for an hour," Fraser said. "He  
injected  
whatever it was into our necks."  
  
"Heavy sedative that has a short-term effect, most likely.  
Using to  
calm super-hysterical patients in hospitals. But how'd he  
get to us?"  
  
She heard Fraser take a breath, felt it exhaled into her hair.  
"Sorry," he apologized.  
  
"Don't be."  
  
"It sounds like Agent Mulder is correct in his theory that  
Tank has  
the ability to disappear."  
  
He heard her chuckle. "You should be on the X-Files, Fraser."  
  
"Call me Ben, if we're going to be trapped together."  
  
"Then you have to call me Dana."  
  
"Agreed," Fraser replied. He felt her shiver in his  
arms, and  
tightened his grip. "Chilled?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
He ran possible remedies through his head. "I have an idea."  
  
"I'm game."  
  
"Turn around so that you're facing me, and sit on my lap.  
I know  
how it sounds, Dana, but maybe if we button our coats together  
we can  
conserve some heat."  
  
She obliged, and they made short work of adjusting the coats.  
Their  
breath mingled. Scully raised her knees to that they were under  
his arms,  
and he raised his so that she was sitting fully on his  
body. "Are you  
uncomfortable?" she asked him.  
  
"No," Fraser replied with a chuckle. "I'd rather  
have you sit on me  
than Ray, or Agent Mulder. You weigh much less."  
He raised a hand to the  
back of her neck, and brought her head to  
his shoulder, then adjusted the  
scarf so that it benefited both of  
them. "Warm now?"  
  
"Yeah," she whispered, her breath hot on his neck.  
"Thanks."  
  
"Don't fall asleep," he said quietly. "Just remember  
that, Dana,  
don't fall asleep."  
  
"Then one of us is going to have to talk," she replied.  
  
"I remember the last time I was in a situation like this...except  
that was much worse. All we had for shelter was a lean-to that I'd made  
from my rifle and my coat, and there was a storm raging."  
  
"Up in the Yukon?"  
  
"Yes, in a place called Fortitude Pass. I'd tracked her...she  
was  
an accomplice to a bank robbery...her name was Victoria."  
Fraser could not  
supress the long shudder that went though him.  
  
"Ben, what is it?"  
  
"It hurts to talk about," he whispered.  
  
"We can talk about something else," Scully said softly.  
  
"No...I need to talk about it, if you don't mind playing  
psychiatrist for a while."  
  
"I want to hear about it," was her reply.  
  
"By the time I found her, I had lost all of my supplies,  
my pack.  
All I had was my coat and my rifle. She was huddled...in  
a crag, on the lee  
side of a mountain. We were both almost frozen,  
and she was very near  
death. So I used my rifle and my coat to make  
a lean to, and for two days  
we held each other while a storm raged  
outside, each keeping the other from  
falling asleep. I talked...until  
I couldn't talk anymore, and then I took  
her fingers, and I put them  
in my mouth to keep them from freezing. I lost  
consciousness after  
that, I don't remember when, but I remember being  
aware...of the  
fact that I was dying. And then I heard her voice, she was  
reciting  
a poem. I couldn't make out the words, but she had the most  
beautiful  
voice...it kept me alive."  
  
"After the storm cleared, we started out. We found my pack,  
and ate  
everything I had. And it took us four days to reach the nearest  
outpost. We  
camped that night just outside the town, and I held her  
in my arms. I held  
her in my arms, Dana, and she asked me to let  
her go. No one know I had  
found her, the police didn't even know  
her name. I could have let her go  
that night, and she could have  
walked away, and I would have spared myself  
the pain of losing her  
a second time. But I turned her in, as was my duty,  
and she was tried,  
and given a ten year sentance for her role in the  
robbery."  
  
"When she got out, she came to Chicago, and I ran into her  
in a  
diner. I took her home with me, and we made dinner and watched  
a television  
that didn't have any sound. She'd placed lit candles  
all around the room,  
until the whole place glowed. We sat, and talked,  
until I took her back to  
her hotel. Not an hour later, she was back  
at my apartment, and we were  
making love. We made love all night,  
and I didn't go to work the next day  
so that I could be with her.  
Ray came to my apartment that night, I had  
missed the pool game he'd  
been planning all week with the Lieutenant and  
the other two detectives.  
He was upset that I hadn't come because I was  
with Victoria, and  
I ran out of the apartment after him. I caught him in  
his car, and  
I was apologizing when I heard a gunshot. We raced back to the  
apartment.  
Victoria was gone, and my wolf, Diefenbaker, had been shot."  
  
"You see, the money that Victoria and the other two robbers  
had  
stolen had never been recovered. The assumption was that the  
robber who'd  
died had known where it was, but hadn't told anyone.  
Jolly, the other man,  
came to Chicago following Victoria, thinking  
she knew where it was. Part of  
the money was buried under the floorboards  
in my father's cabin. I don't  
know how it got there. They'd found  
it a week before when the place had  
burned down. Victoria went to  
stay at Ray's house, but Jolly knew where she  
was. He followed her  
to the zoo, where she was supposed to meet with Ray  
and me, and she  
shot him, and escaped."  
  
"She shot him with my .38, which I hadn't reported missing  
afterthe  
investigation into Dief's shooting. He survived the wound,  
and it was  
determined that he too had been shot with my .38. It cast  
suspicion on me,  
and indirectly on Ray, who was suspended in conjunction  
with the case.  
Victoria had planted money from the robbery on both  
me and Ray, so it  
looked as if we were the ones who had the money.  
Then Lieutenant Welsh came  
to me with Gardino and Hewey, and asked  
if it was my gun. I said yes, and  
they arrested me for first degree-murder.  
Ray got me out that same day on  
bail, and we set about trying to  
prove that Victoria had murdered Jolly in  
self-defense. But Victoria  
was craftier than that. When her sister had died  
in a car accident  
a month after she got out of jail, she'd identified the  
body as her  
own. So by all accounts, Victoria Metcalfe was dead."  
  
"She then used me to exchange a briefcase of stolen money  
for a  
pouch of diamonds before she took a train to wherever she was  
going next. I  
assume the airport, then she was flying Texas, that's  
where she'd said she  
wanted to go. She said if I didn't do it, she  
would call Internal Affairs  
and tell them that I had the money, and  
I was the culprit. She called  
anyway, even before I went to make  
the diamond exchange, but I didn't know  
it. Ray and I got to the  
train station just before her train left. He  
stayed behind to pick  
up the briefcase of money that she'd thrown down. You  
see, she'd  
had it in a station locker, and I had switched the keys on her  
while  
I was putting the diamonds in her purse. Her plan was to have the key  
to the money locker found at Ray's house, implicating Ray and me. But  
she  
had the wrong key, so she couldn't get her real suicase, only  
the briefcase  
full of money."  
  
"I ran after her out onto the platform. When I caught her,  
her  
purse flew out of her grasp and all the diamonds scattered. She  
pointed a  
gun at me and told me to pick them up, but I refused. I  
took the gun away  
from her, and she jumped on the train, and asked  
me to come with her. I  
stood there while the train began to pull  
away. I heard Ray and the other  
detectives run out of the station  
house, and I began to run after Victoria.  
She held out her hand to  
me, and I guess it looked to Ray like she had a  
gun pointed at me.  
Just as I stepped on the train to go with her, he pulled  
the trigger,  
and shot me in the back. He was aiming for Victoria, but she  
got  
away. And I collapsed to the platform."  
  
"I spent the next month recovering from my wounds, both  
physical  
and mental. While at the hospital, my physical therapist  
and I discovered  
that one of the doctors had been having an affair  
with an intern. She tried  
to kill him, and I stood between her and  
her lover. Ray jumped in front of  
me just as she pulled the trigger,  
and he himself was shot in the shoulder."  
  
Fraser didn't realize that he was crying until he stopped speaking.  
Scully held on to him tight, rocking, letting his tears slip through  
her  
hair. "Ssssh," she whispered. "Let it all out.  
You always feel so much  
better when you do..."  
  
She held him closely for what felt like forever as he cried,  
knowing that the hot tears would wash away his pain. And what they could  
not wash away, they would cool to a dull ache. "Oh, Ben," she  
murmured  
against his neck. "You have to forgive yourself before  
you can reach any  
kind of closure."  
  
"I know," he whispered back. "I know."  
  
"If it makes you feel any better, I have a stranger story  
to tell."  
She felt him nod, and continued. "My former lover  
was shot by a bank robber  
and then his body was possessed by the  
robber's spirit."  
  
"That's impossible."  
  
"It's also true. I was there when Jack died, and when he  
came back  
to life as someone else. I found him holed up in a house  
with the robber's  
wife, and when I got inside she handcuffed me to  
the radiator so that I was  
trapped in there with them. She called  
Mulder and remanded a ransom. I was  
her ticket to money, or so she  
thought. She didn't give a damn about Jack,  
and it cost him his life.  
He was diabetic, and even though she went out and  
stole insulin for  
him, she wouldn't let me administer it. By the time  
Mulder and the  
other agents found us, he'd gone into insulin shock, and  
died from  
it. Lula had never loved her husband, all she wanted was the  
money  
he'd stolen from the banks."  
  
Fraser was quiet for a moment, then asked. "Do you think  
that  
Victoria loved me, Dana?"  
  
"In her own way."  
  
He tightened his arms around her. "Are you warm enough?"  
  
"I could do with a nice vacation to the Caribbean, but it's  
warm  
enough, considering we're in a six-degree cellar. Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"A person could do a lot worse than being trapped with a  
Mountie,"  
Scully chuckled.  
  
"Or a doctor," Fraser added. "With our combined  
experience, we have  
a very good chance of survival. This is practically  
balmy compared to  
Fortitude Pass."  
  
"You ever been somewhere warm?"  
  
"Chicago is the warmest."  
  
"You should try Texas in June. I have never sweated so much  
in my  
life."  
  
Fraser laughed. "Maybe I should use up those 80 or so sick  
days I  
have left."  
  
"You'd look even better with a tan," Scully replied.  
She raised a  
gloved hand, and touched his face. "I hate not  
being able to see you. Or  
see anything, for that matter."  
  
"I can just make out the line of your shoulder," Fraser  
replied.  
"Guess my night vision is better than yours."  
  
"Guess so. I don't care much for the dark."  
  
"It's beautiful up in the Territories at night," Fraser  
sighed.  
"Dark, but the snow sparkles under the starlight. The  
sky is so clear you  
can make out almost every constellation."  
He paused for a moment. "Here  
there's so many streetlights that  
it's hard to make out any stars at all."  
  
"Try D.C. It's almost like having constant daylight,"  
Scully said  
wryly. "It's been a long time since I looked up  
at the stars. A long time.  
Mulder is always chastizing me for not  
observing the skies but I find it  
hard to look up after my abduction."  
  
"Abduction?"  
  
"Yeah. I was kidnapped by an escaped mental patient who  
believed he  
was an alien abductee. He thought they were coming for  
him again, and that  
he could trade me for himself. I was missing  
for three months and I don't  
remember any of it, except in little  
bits and pieces. Mulder...Mulder would  
have prevented it, except  
that all his attempts were sabotaged by his new  
partner, Alex Krycek,  
who was working for the people who abducted me."  
  
"I thought you and Mulder have been on the X-Files since  
'92,"  
Fraser said, confused.  
  
"They split us up after a government official was killed  
trying to  
aid us in our pusuit of the men who would later abduct  
me. It's very  
complicated. The X-Files were reopened with Mulder  
and me running them  
after I recovered from my abduction."  
  
"What do you remember about the abduction?"  
  
"Bright light. Men...performing tests of some type."  
She paused for  
a moment, shaken. "I had an implant in my neck  
when I returned."  
  
"So no aliens?"  
  
"No aliens."  
  
"Did you have the implant removed?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
There was more silence for a while. "Fraser," Scully  
said finally.  
"How long have we been missing?"  
  
"No more than four hours, Dana."  
  
"You sure I can't sleep? I'm not cold at all. And I'm a  
doctor,  
remember?"  
  
"I remember," he chuckled. "I'll wake you up in  
a little while."  
  
Scully adjusted her head on his shoulder, and closed her eyes.  
Fraser held her close and listened as her breathing evened out into the  
slow inhalations and exhalations of someone asleep.  
In...out...in...out...he flexed his hand in the thick gloves he wore  
to  
keep his circulation going, and blinked several times to rid himself  
of the  
tears that still lingered from talking about Victoria.  
  
It had been over a decade now since he'd tracked her to that  
pass.  
Over a decade since he'd first held her in his arms. Over a  
decade since  
she'd asked him to let her go, and he'd refused. Would  
I have saved myself  
a decade of pain, he thought to himself, if I  
had let her go that night? It  
was a question he had asked himself  
many times before, on many sleepless  
nights when he'd lain awake  
aching to be with her.  
  
***  
  
Fox Mulder knew they were near. He could feel it, feel Scully's  
nearness. He thought back to the field in Apison, about how the door  
to the  
bunker had been hidden under the grass. His eyes swept the  
ground as he  
walked. They'd disappeared so fast that Tank couldn't  
have gotten far. He'd  
had a twenty minute window between check ins,  
that was all. Mulder's eyes  
focused on a small patch where the stalks  
of the grass were bent.  
"Detective Vecchio!" he called.  
  
Vecchio jogged up beside him. Mulder pointed at the spot. "There's  
your bunker, Detective."  
  
Vecchio raised his arm and waved the SWAT team over. Mulder watched  
as they uncovered the wooden trapdoor, cleverly hidden underneath a piece  
of sod. "How'd you know it was there?" Vecchio asked.  
  
"I've seen one like it before," was Mulder's reply.  
He and Vecchio  
followed behind the SWAT team as they went down the  
wooden ladder that led  
down from the door. They lit a flare, and  
looked at their surroundings. A  
wall of dirt stood before them, to  
their left was a metal door. He nodded  
at the team leader in approval,  
and the door was opened. The team streamed  
down the inside hallway.  
There was a shot, and the sound of a falling body.  
  
Vecchio looked at Mulder. "It's not them. It's Tank."  
  
"They're here." Mulder placed a hand on the dirt wall  
in front of  
them, then began to rip away the dirt. "It's wet.  
He must have just  
finished building it when we found the trapdoor."  
  
"What are you doing?" Vecchio asked in amazement.  
  
"Shut up and help me," Mulder growled. Vecchio holstered  
his gun,  
and began to dig. Mulder's hunch soon proved correct, and  
they found  
another door. "Scully?" he shouted though it.  
  
"We're in here!" Fraser's voice yelled back. Mulder  
stepped back,  
and kicked the door open. Fraser and Scully were huddled  
together against  
the wall. He lit another flare, and stepped inside.  
"You all right?" he  
asked Scully and Fraser, who were unbuttoning  
their joint coat. He helped  
Scully to stand.  
  
"I'm fine, really," she said, looking at Fraser, who  
nodded. "You  
found us quickly."  
  
"We knew you had to be close. He only had a twenty-minute  
window to  
pull it off. If I didn't know better, I'd say that he wanted  
to get caught."  
  
"Sir?" It was the SWAT team leader. He held a dirt  
covered,  
handcuffed Tank by the elbow.  
  
"Take him away," Mulder ordered. "Anyone hurt?"  
  
"No, his shot missed," the team leader replied. "We  
found some  
heroin, as well as whatever he injected Agent Scully and  
Constable Fraser  
with, in the other room."  
  
"Thank you," Mulder replied, turning back to Scully  
and Fraser.  
  
"Benny, you okay?" Vecchio asked from behind Mulder.  
  
"I'm fine, Ray," Fraser replied.  
  
"Good." Vecchio turned to the SWAT team. "Come  
on, come on, let's  
go! Let's get this jerk downtown," he said,  
gesturing at them to leave. "No  
disappearing," he said  
to Tank as they went up the ladder.  
  
"You sure you're okay?" Mulder asked Scully worriedly.  
"No frostbite?"  
  
"No frostbite," she assured him. "Please, can  
we get out of there?  
I just want to go somewhere warm."  
  
"You know that both you and Constable Fraser will have to  
file  
official reports with the Chicago PD?"  
  
"We're aware of that," Fraser replied. "Do we  
need to stay down  
here any longer?"  
  
Mulder tore his eyes away from Scully to glance at Fraser. "No."  
  
Scully was already at the base of the ladder. "Then let's  
go, all  
right?"  
  
They went up the ladder, and Scully and Fraser got into the back  
of  
the squad car. "I'll see you at the station," Mulder  
said to Scully, then  
shut the door.  
  
Scully looked at Fraser, who smiled comfortingly. "You sure  
you're  
all right? You don't have to lie to me."  
  
"I don't think I'll be able to sleep without a light on  
for a few  
nights, but I'll be fine. What about you?"  
  
He knew she was inquiring about his mental state as well as his  
physical. "It was good for me to talk about her," he said softly.  
"Thank  
you."  
  
"I wanted to listen," Scully replied, smiling softly.  
"Thank you  
for sharing it with me."  
  
The car started up, with Detective Hewey behind the wheel. "You  
guys want some coffee?" he asked.  
  
"I want a shower," Scully said wryly.  
  
Hewey chuckled. "I don't think it should take too long at  
the  
station unless they want to give you a medical exam. My guess  
is they'll  
just want blood samples. Since you and Constable Fraser  
are both government  
employees, they'll probably just give you the  
forms to fill out and send  
you home."  
  
Scully flexed her gloved hands where they lay in her lap. Fraser  
noticed, and raised his eyes to hers. "You cold?"  
  
"A little."  
  
"Could you turn the heat up a little, Detective?"  
  
"Sure, Fraser." Hewey did as asked. "Better?"  
  
"Yeah, thanks," Fraser said. He leaned over to whisper  
in Scully's  
ear. "If you really wanted to see him squirm, we  
could always assume our  
former position." His tone was serious,  
but his eyes were laughing.  
  
Scully chuckled softly. "And have him crash the car? I think  
not."  
  
They talked softly about nothing all the way to the station.  
  
  
***  
-Email:  



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